I’m curious how other feel about getting insulin in the mail. I’m not enjoying driving to the pharmacy in general but insulin is the only thing I have any concerns about.
I assume they have to ship it with cold packs but maybe delays sometimes cause it to come not cold?
Then what? call and get new cold ones sent out?
For the last 10 years+ I get all my insulin by mail from Canada, so including shipping time, time in customs, and then delivery to the US, I have never received any bad insulin through the mail. The cold packs are almost always melted by the time the insulin arrives (about 10 days from order time). I self-pay my insulin as it is cheaper than insurance premiums + copay and I am on Medicare and do have a cheap part D plan for drugs. Insulin purchased in Canada, for identical insulin, is 10%-20% of the cost of purchasing in the US.
I don’t think insulin would be harmed if it wasn’t cold for a few days (or really for much longer than that)
My insurance requires that I get “maintenance medication” through mail order. I’ve never had a problem with it. It is shipped with cold packs and they are usually still a bit cool (but not cold) when the package arrives. I find mail order to be convenient.
I order my insulin for 6-7 months at a time from Canada during the Spring or Fall season. That way there is little chance it will freeze or get cooked in the sun.
Years ago I started getting my insulin through my insurance’s mail order pharmacy, Caremark. It was before CVS bought them. Caremark was great. They packed it in a styrofoam cooler with bubble wrap inside and frozen gel packs. They shipped it UPS Next Day Air. Then CVS bought Caremark and my first shipment with them was shipped UPS Ground, in August, from Texas to NY. On a Thursday, which meant it sat in a UPS facility somewhere over the weekend. I received it the following Tuesday. It was in a cardboard box that had thick styrofoam along the 4 walls, but not on the bottom or top. The one gel pack was long melted and everything was very warm.
I called Caremark and they told me new insulin would not be shipped out unless the stuff they sent me didn’t work! I had a buffer supply so I would be okay, but I tried one of the new vials immediately. It did work just fine but I didn’t trust getting it mail order after that. I know many people end up down to their few units before insurance lets them get a refill. What if those people end up with compromised insulin and don’t have an extra vial to fall back on? My current insurance allows me to get a 90 day supply from Walgreens so I do that now. Previously I would get a 30 day supply and go every month, which wasn’t fun.
Except for the start When I went to walmart, I have to get mine shipped through mail order. I think now I can get it locally too but I would never do that again. Walmart was terrible gave me the wring insulin once. I was on mdi then. It is much easier to have it shipped.
Mine is shipped in styrofoam containers with frozen cooling gel packs. I have not had any issues. There is a sensor thing that supposedly turns pink if it goes above and maybe below the temp range. If it is extra hot or cold, especially cold, I make sure to bring it inside asap. I get emails notifying me of delivery but sometimes it gets confusing with other meds coming too.
I have always picked up insulin direct from pharmacy, currently from Costco. Prior to that in person pick up at CVS.
I use the mail because it’s easier. I worry in the summer but it usually arrives with cold packs still cool.
Was also my concern when I had to order a few vial from Canada to bridge gap between Tricare exclusion from pharmacy and Medicare eligibility. Shipment got stuck in Canada for over a week after snow storm, but worked fine. I emailed Canada Post and they made finding my insulin into a medical emergency.
I live in S central Texas where it can get quite hot. When I was working I would have my insulin delivered to my work place because I didn’t want the cool pack sitting on my porch in the hot afternoon sun. This worked well until the mail order pharmacy was taken over by Express Scripts.
They changed to delivering on Saturday. The very first weekend delivery was Labor Day weekend. The box sat in a hot brown UPS truck until Tuesday. The temperature in the box was above 90° F. I contacted Express Scripts and told them this was unacceptable. They shipped me a new order, with the instructions to have delivery mid work week, not on Saturday.
As I am retired, I get the box inside quickly now.
I know that some think elevated temperatures doesn’t harm insulin much or at all, but I prefer getting my insulin to never get hot. My endo prescribes so much Humalog that it lasts me a bit over 6 months, so I rather it starts out cool rather than hot.
I also get my insulin through the mail, Express Scripts. It comes in a Styrofoam box with ice packs. Even in hot summers, when it sits outside my door for hours when I’m not home until late in the day, it’s never gone bad.
From 1982 until about 2006 I got my insulin at the local pharmacy usually a month at a time. During chunks of this time I was uninsured and paying cash. Rarely did I have a stockpile.
By the early 2000’s many common insulins (R and N) were not being stocked by pharmacies and and I would have to wait for a day or two after ordering. Which I thought was weird.
Circa 2006 my insurance gave me the option to mail order 3 months of insulin at a time. I have used the “default” mail order pharmacies of Cigna and UHC and they always do an excellent job shipping in boxed styrofoam containers with cold packs. Having my doc send the prescription to the mail order pharmacy electronically has become 100% the norm in past 5 years. If you can get your doc to write the prescription for just a little more than you actually need this let’s you build up a stockpile.
You can also tell your doc that you are going to travel so need a paper prescription to show airport authorities in certain countries and so a doctor in another country can make sure you get the correct insulin if needed. Then you can take that paper prescription and order insulin from Canada and easily build up a stockpile combining what you get in the US + what you get from Canada.
I have had insulin shipped to me and as others shared, it was well-packaged, included cold packs, etc. At that point in my life, I could only obtain a 90 day supply from one of the mail order pharmacies. I’ve been able to purchase a 90 day supply a a local pharmacy for the last few years. I prefer not to use the mail order places because of all the packaging that has to be disposed of. The amount of waste from mail order insulin was my reason for switching to purchasing insulin at a “brick and mortar” pharmacy. For those who purchase insulin from a Canadian pharmacy for economic reasons, I totally understand the reasoning, and under those circumstances, I, too, would deal with all the packaging material.
This is highly dependent on your location and the value of your time. For some to go to “brick and mortar” for insulin would be a huge waste of time and vehicular expense even if the trip could be combined with other errands. The cost in time and to the environment would far exceed the benefits of reduced packaging waste.
I get mine from Express Scripts, 90 day supply. I am very pleased regarding its condition upon arrival. Also, expiration dates are good (2024). I have Medicare A and B along with a Cigna plan for Part D. I know that I am supposed to be able to get insulin from Walgreens through my Part B; however I could never get this to work. Walgreens could not get it right. There were paperwork issues, billing issues, and I still never received $88 that Walgreens required me to pay even though my supplemental plan paid the same amount.
So I elected to get a more expensive part D plan with zero copay, no deductible for my insulin and 0-10 dollars for all my other medications.
Interesting reading the other replies. Similarly, I get insulin mail-ordered, 90 day supply at a time. All ok except most recent shipment. I timed the order so it would arrive the week I would be home. Except for the first time, they took over 10 days to ship and it arrived while I was out of town, during a heatwave. Sat on my front porch over 3 days.
The good news is it was still slightly cool and so far its been working correctly. But that was worrisome. If it happens again, I will change providers.
But other than this one incident, shipped insulin has worked fine.
If you have a provider you are generally happy with, a change would most likely be a lose-lose proposition. There are many hands involved in the acquisition of insulin from the prescribing facility to the delivery service. Nothing is ever perfect 100% of the time in this process and change of providers often carries its own risks and delays. With a good provider, It is actually pretty amazing how few incidents occur.
Depending on where you live, it might work. It would never work where I live. It would freeze in no time. We got unexpected snow this week already, up north. Weather is totally unpredictable.